Matthew le Cordeur
Johannesburg – While countries vying for South Africa’s 9 600 MW nuclear programme talk shop at a conference outside Pretoria, events down the road could put President Jacob Zuma’s dream of nuclear in a precarious position.
Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas said on Wednesday that the Gupta family had offered him Nhlanhla Nene’s job, which he declined. Weeks later, Nene was replaced by unknown ANC MP Des van Rooyen, who was then quickly dumped for Pravin Gordhan due to political pressure.
What Jonas didn’t clarify was whether the Guptas’ offer came with a condition to authorise the nuclear procurement plan, which Nene had been stalling on. The Democratic Alliance and Congress of the People are pressing charges against the Guptas on Thursday, in which they seek to uncover allegations of more Gupta-linked appointments.
The allegations point to so-called state capture by the Gupta family, with key presidential appointments being earmarked to promote private business interests. The family denies this.
Reformist Gordhan has resumed Nene’s stance on nuclear, with the message that nuclear energy will proceed at scale and pace that the country can afford. Zuma pointed this out too in his State of the Nation address.
Treasury economists have apparently done their sums and believe the nuclear programme will tip the country into a fiscal danger zone.
The reason why Treasury is likely against nuclear is because it will have to come up with guarantee of R800bn, EE Publishers MD Chris Yelland told Fin24 on Thursday. “The debt to GDP ratio is on the edge,” he said. “Another R800bn will take it over the edge.”
In its Budget Review, Treasury said guarantees for state-owned entities stood at R467bn at March 31 2016, with 75% of this being issued to Eskom. Independent power producers were the biggest contributor to Eskom, adding R200bn to this level.